Halloween decorations were up in the stores in full force by the beginning of September. Connor watched a Halloween themed cartoon around this time that had a ghost in it. At first he acted like it scared him, but after watching it a few times he decided that ghosts were the coolest things ever. So when we started seeing ghosts, skeletons, witches, and pumpkins in the stores, he was super excited. Every time we were out and spotted a ghost or some other spooky character he would wave and point excitedly. We had to stop and look and touch if we could. We loved seeing him get so excited about Halloween.
We also had fun trying on the giant head costumes at Walmart for him. It gave us all a good laugh to see Brian as a gorilla, goat, bear, or dog.
We also got him a Thomas-themed set of Mega Blocks. Although he loves the blocks and has fun building with them, his favorite thing is the Thomas train that came with the set. It's made of mega blocks, and he loves to pull it apart and put it together again. Within the first few days, he'd disassembled and reassembled that train a hundred times and could do it with his eyes closed. Here we are a couple months later and it's still his favorite toy. He loves it when Brian and I build block bridges and towers for him to drive Thomas and his cars through.
The weather cooled down from the high 90's to the 70's so Connor and I started taking walks again and playing outside. We were so happy that the outdoor's were hospitable again. On some of our walks we went to the library. Connor still loves to play with all the library's toys.
His new favorite food is hamburgers. It's the only food that he will consistently eat. He will sit and eat a whole burger during a meal. So I know he can eat more than the bits and pieces that he normally eats at meals. He just has to be motivated enough with the right food I guess. I don't blame him. Hamburgers are delicious.
As of September Connor weighed around 24 pounds. He wore 24 month shirts, 18 month pants, size 5 diapers, size 5 shoes. He continues to be very active and never stops moving. He loves to tease us and one of his favorite games that we play every night before bedtime is hide and seek. He loves to read books and have us sing him songs. He loves trains, cars, dinosaurs, ghosts, pumpkins, and airplanes. He is still not talking yet. He makes lots of noises, but no actual words. He fell this month and hit his mouth, splitting his lip tie. His two front teeth are now closer together. There was a lot of blood and tears, but after some cuddles, hugs, and kisses, he was back up and running again.
Connor still loves to color and draw and will happily sit with some crayons or a a pencil and scribble in a coloring book or notebook for quite awhile. He is quite proud of his work too and likes to show it off to us.
One afternoon, Connor pulled his superhero cape out of his toy box. This is the first time that he was really interested in it. I helped him put it on and he got so excited. He wore it for a good couple of hours and loved running around so it would stream out behind him. At one point he found the Batman mask and brought that out to play with as well. It's still really big for him, but that didn't stop him from holding it up to his face. It made me laugh. He was just so cute.
Connor continues to surprise and delight us often. One morning after I got out of the shower, I found Grover sitting in Connor's booster seat, all set up for breakfast. Connor had put Grover in the seat and then moved his breakfast leftovers from the table to the seat's tray. He didn't even spill any cereal. I was quite impressed. It made me laugh because it was so cute. Connor was so proud that he gave Grover breakfast.
He has also started to mimic talking on the phone. He does this often with my phone, but will also use a calculator. It's so fun to watch him wander around chattering as if he's on an important phone call.
September was the last month that he used a pacifier. Seeing these pictures of him with a pacifier make him seem so much smaller/younger than he is now. We were down to our last two pacifiers, one of which he had chewed on so much that it had a hole. We tossed that one and then were down to one...which was getting pretty worn. One day that last pacifier came up missing. We tried to find it but couldn't, so we just shrugged our shoulders and decided to be done. He had a couple rough nights getting to sleep without his pacifier, but that was about it. I was thinking it was going to be so much harder to wean him from pacifiers considering how attached he was to them, but after a couple rough nights, he was good to go. Another last that means my baby is growing up. So bittersweet.
Throughout the month, we continued to look for a house to buy. We saw a few, but nothing really was right. We put in an offer on a condo and the sellers accepted our offer, but it just didn't feel right, so we backed out. Then one Monday I was looking through listings online and a townhouse caught my eye. It was actually next door to the townhouse we'd put an offer on the month before but didn't get. I called up our realtor to see if she could get us in for a showing. Later that afternoon she got back to me and said that they weren't doing showings until their open house on Saturday. She was out of town anyway and would be coming back on Wednesday, so she would check again then to see if she could get us in early. So we put a pin in it.
On Wednesday she got in touch asking if we still wanted to see the townhouse. We said yes, and she contacted the sellers' realtor. They said they had some offers already and were going to go over them and decide that night! So much for a Saturday open house. She was in California and waiting to get on her flight...she wouldn't be back in Utah until late afternoon. She arranged for another realtor she worked with to get us in for a quick showing about an hour after she first called. Since she was about to get on a plane though, we needed to decide if we wanted to put in a blind offer so she could prepare the paperwork before she got on the plane. Brian was at work and I couldn't get a hold of him so I decided to go ahead with an offer. She prepped the paperwork on her end, and I got in touch with Brian. He was able to leave work and come pick me up so we could go see the place. We signed the offer paperwork electronically in the car on the way to see the place.
We met the realtor at the townhouse and she let us in. It was the same basic layout as the townhouse next door...three floors, one of which was an unfinished basement. It was a bit of a fixer upper, needing new paint and new carpet to start. We felt good about our offer. That night our realtor let us know that the seller's had accepted our offer. We were getting a house! Things progressed very quickly after that.
That weekend was crazy as well. Saturday we were busy getting Brian ready for his work trip to New York City. Brian left Sunday morning and didn't get back until Tuesday night. My mom came to stay with me while he was gone. I had to teach the Gospel Doctrine Sunday School class on Sunday and Connor still will not stay in nursery by himself without a major meltdown. My mom took him to nursery so I could teach my class.
It was nice to have a couple days to catch my breath while she was in town. We got to go pick peaches at our stake peach orchard. They had finished the harvest and it was open for all in the stake to go and gather the leftovers. Connor was not a fan of the poky grass between the trees and cried unless I was holding him. So I only got to do a little picking. My mom did most of the work. It was a beautiful day and we got to take home some yummy peaches which we thoroughly enjoyed. I meant to make a peach pie but it just didn't happen. We enjoyed them anyway, eating them fresh and with vanilla ice cream.
My mom left and Brian came back from NY. I loaded Connor up and we drove to the SLC airport at 11 pm to pick him up. The next day we met the Westover family at a park in Salt Lake City for Tom and Sarah's rehearsal dinner. That's right, Tom and Sarah were getting married the next day. Sean and Andrea flew in for the occasion and we loved getting to see them.
The kids had fun playing while we helped Layne and Kris set up the dinner in the pavilion. Connor loved his cousins. He followed them around, especially Oliver, and had a blast playing with them. The dinner was yummy and we had fun meeting all of Sarah's family and friends. It was a nice evening and we stayed til after dark. After helping clean and load up, we headed home.
The next day, wedding day, we spent the morning printing, signing, and submitting more paperwork for our house. We got ready that afternoon and headed off to the wedding. It was a beautiful drive up the canyon to the wedding venue.
The setting for the wedding was so beautiful and it was a perfect fall day. We were there a bit early so Connor had fun playing with cousins again. He decided that he loved them so much that he needed to hug them. He would hug Oliver and then run over to Faye and give her a hug, and then back to Oliver for another hug. They though Connor was pretty funny with all of his hugging.
Soon it was time for the ceremony to start and we found our seats. I was a bit worried about how Connor would act during the ceremony. We were on the front row sitting next to Layne and Kris with Andrea and her kids. Brian and Sean were in the wedding party and standing up with Tom. Connor did so well. I was so worried that he would cry or throw a fit and try to run around, but he sat nice and quiet next to me the entire time. He did get a little fidgety but I opened his favorite animal app and he watched muted videos of frogs while Tom and Sarah exchanged their vows.
The ceremony was wonderful and Tom and Sarah so happy. She was a beautiful bride. Brian and I love Sarah and are very happy for them.
We hung around after the ceremony for family pictures. It was great to visit with everyone and see everyone smiling and so happy.
After pictures, we walked across the road to the main building. We signed the guest book and then found our table. At this point, the temperature was dropping rapidly and it was getting really chilly. I had forgotten to grab Connor's jacket from the car, so I was grateful that there were blankets available. Connor tolerated the blanket for a few minutes only, then decided he didn't want to deal with it. Silly kid.
Dinner was delicious and it was fun toasting the bride and groom. After dinner there was dancing and Connor turned into a party animal. Brian and I took him to the dance floor and we held hands and danced with him in a circle. He had the biggest smile on his face and thought that dancing was so fun. After awhile we headed back to the table to get a piece of cake, but Connor didn't want to stay and eat desert. All he wanted to do was dance. Whenever we turned our backs on him for a second, he would dart away through the tables and back to the dance floor. We would find him standing in the middle of the dancing adults just smiling and happy as can be. When we decided it was time to go, Connor was still hyper and wanting to dance. Brian and I were so tired, but he was still raring to go. Once we got him in the car and started the drive home, he crashed and slept the whole way home.
It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful evening. We are so happy for Tom and Sarah and loved that we could be there on their big day.
The next day it was back to normal lift again. Brian went to work and I stayed home with Connor. Kris left us with a whole bunch of plants from the rehearsal dinner. Connor loved helping me water them each day. He loved touching and smelling the flowers, and of course playing in the water running from the pots.
We were set to close on our house the first part of October, and in the meantime we started going to Lowe's to look at paint and carpet and all that fun stuff. Connor decided that Lowe's was an awesome store, first because he got to ride in the awesome car cart and second because of all the Halloween decorations.
While Layne and Kris were in town, we had our realtor let us in the place to show them around. We did some measuring so that we could price out some things. Connor followed Dad and Grandpa around copying them as they bent to examine things. When they put the measuring tape down, he grabbed it and started measuring the floor. It was adorable.
At one point we found Connor and Archy looking out a window together. It was so cute. They are the perfect size to be best friends. Connor loves Archy and I think Archy loves Connor.
We ended September, looking forward to closing on our house. It was a crazy month full of big events. All good things of course, but boy did they make life exciting and a little exhausting.
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